A CHURCH THAT STEPS OUT: REACHING DIFFERENT KINDS OF PEOPLE
Acts 9:32-43
John Tung, 5-6-07
I. Introduction
There is a commercial on TV which shows several signs from companies that offer very mixed up services that do not belong together. For example - and this is in the spirit on the commercial, since I was not quick enough to write down the words - there is one sign that says, “Karate Studio and Senior Home.” Then another that says, “Pizzeria and Health Spa.” And a third one that says, “Divorce Lawyer and Wedding Planner.”
The point of the commercial, which is put on by Delta Dental, is that “Dental is all we do, and we do it better than anyone.”
Well, in today’s passage from the Bible, we also find three unrelated individuals that have nothing in common, yet for some reason they are all included in the same passage and one person ministered to all of them.
The passage is in Acts 9:32-43. And the person who ministered to them is the apostle Peter. Let’s turn to that passage and let me read it for you. [Read.]
II. God Cares for Individuals
Here we have three people named by names with apparently nothing in common between them. We have a man named Aeneas who is a paralytic. We have a woman named Tabitha. And we have only the briefest mention of the third person: Simon, who was a tanner.
Who are these people and why are they in this story?
A. God Cares for Someone with Nothing to Contribute to Society: Aeneas the Paralytic – vss. 32-35
Well, let’s start with the first person, and he was named Aeneas.
This man was not in good shape. We don’t know his age – he could be a younger person, or an older person. The passage doesn’t tell us.
But what it does tell us is that he was paralyzed and could not use his arms or legs. We’re not sure how he got that way: was it through an accident or injury, did he suffer a stroke, or was it something in his genes that showed up later in life? Once again, the passage doesn’t tell us the reason.
But what it does say is that he had been like this for 8 years. He had been paralyzed for 8 years and all he could to was lie on his bed the whole day for 8 years.
No one here wants to be like Aeneas. We don’t want to be bedridden for 8 days, let alone for 8 years. We want to go out and run around and enjoy life. We want to go to school and make friends or go to work and do something productive.
But Aeneas could do nothing productive. He just lied there. He could not contribute anything to society. He probably also had no friends. And it doesn’t say anything about his parents, his siblings, or even a wife. Most likely, he was abandoned by everyone and he was all alone. Imagine what it must have felt like to be Aeneas. It was pretty sad.
Soldiers from Iraq who lost their legs often fall into depression and feeling useless. But God cares for them.
God cared for Aeneas. God cares for someone who had nothing to contribute to society (slide says: “God Cares for Someone with Nothing to Contribute to Society: Aeneas the Paralytic – vss. 32-35”)
God cared for him and God sent the apostle Peter to this town to heal Aeneas.
Peter goes straight up to Aeneas and looks into his eyes and says, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat.”
Peter tells him that it is not Peter himself who has the power to heal him. It is Jesus Christ. We don’t have the power to miraculously heal others, it is Jesus Christ.
And when Jesus Christ heals us, he wants us to do something. In Aeneas’ case, Jesus Christ wanted him to get up immediately from the mat or bed he had been lying on and take care of his mat, which probably means roll it up.
And Aeneas miraculously got up.
Sometimes in a magic show, you have someone lying down who is supposedly cut in half, and then the magician waves his hand over the person, and magically, that person gets right up to show that he wasn’t cut in half.
Well, what Peter did is better than magic. Aeneas was healed miraculously. He had really been unable to walk but now through Jesus Christ, he was healed and he could walk. God’s power is greater than magic.
But what I want you to see is that God cared for someone who made no contribution to society. Aeneas could not work, he was alone, he was very sick, he was incapacitated, but God cared for him.
And that is true still today. God cares for people who do not seem to be able to make any contribution to society. But the worth of a person is not measured in God’s eyes by how much they can do or contribute to society, but by the fact that he made them.
Maybe you know someone like that. Maybe you know someone who is picked on by other kids because they seem to be so different and not as smart. Maybe you know someone who is slower or does not have friends. Maybe you know someone who is handicapped.
Or maybe you feel like you are a “nobody.” Maybe you feel that you have nothing to contribute to society. Maybe you feel like an outcast or worthless. I am here to tell you that you are not worthless. You matter to God. He cares for you. He made you. And he will never forget you.
Even if other people may look past you, God does not. He wants to help you. He loves you. And he cares for you.
And as the body of Christ on earth, as the church, as the teens group, we should have the same attitude. We should not think someone is worthless just because they can’t do too much or contribute as much as someone else.
God cared for someone with nothing to contribute to society, and we should too.
And the surprising thing is that God can use the person who seems to have nothing to contribute but use him or her in an amazing way.
We see this in vs. 35. After Aeneas was healed, what happened? Vs. 35 says that “All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.”
This is a very important verse.
Do you know what it is saying?
It is saying that as a result of Aeneas’ healing, hundreds if not thousands of people became Christians.
Not only in his own town of Lydda, where he lived, but up and down the coast of Israel, along the Mediterranean Sea, people who knew of him and who now saw him and heard him, believed in Jesus Christ.
In other words, Aeneas did as much as the great apostle Peter or Paul ever did. This so-called “worthless” person, through God caring for him, led thousands of people to Christ.
His simple words and testimony made people turn to Christ.
So God can use a worthless, paralyzed person in a mighty way.
So, don’t look down on people who seem to be weaker than we are. There is great potential in them that God wants to bring out. And with God’s grace, he can use that person.
We all know by now, the shooter at Virginia Tech, Seung Hiu Cho, was a young man who had mental illness. He did not think rationally, and had all kinds of scary and paranoid ideas.
His family believes that he was autistic, which is a disease that makes a person very withdrawn socially and not talkative at all.
It is sad that this young man’s family did not get help for him, maybe they were ashamed of his mental illness, maybe they didn’t have the money, or maybe they didn’t where to get help. So, it’s important that parents and kids get help for mental issues if they need it. It should not be something shameful; it should be something that we should be supportive of as a community.
I also know another young person who is autistic. She fortunately, was properly diagnosed and got help. In her case, since both of her parents had died, her brother got her help. He paid for her to be housed in a home where there is 24X7 care for her. They are very caring and gentle in their care and I have visited her in her home and I am impressed with the level of care they provide. The county also assists in the costs of this care.
But what I want to add is that this lady came to worship in our church for several years. When she came, her caregiver would always come with her, to make sure she was ok. And this autistic lady would take Communion with everyone else. She would sit there and sing and listen, or as much as she can, and she came for 2 years. Some of you in the English congregation know who I am talking about.
For the last 2 years she has not been able to come since her illness has gotten somewhat worse and the caregiver does not feel she can handle the stimulation from so many people. So I understand why she is unable to come now.
But my point is that a person who has been properly diagnosed of a mental illness (and there are many different types), and who is receiving treatment, can still worship God and live with God in their life. They don’t have to act violently. They can be treated and not harm themselves or other people. They can still function in our society.
And some have even made great contribution to our society as artists, writers, musicians, scientists, if they are treated and there are more and more ways to treat these illnesses. So, it is not necessary to suffer in silence or shame. With treatment and proper care, they can still make a contribution to society.
B. God Cares for Someone with a Lot to Contribute to Society: Tabitha the Helper – vss. 36-42
But let’s move on to a second person in today’s passage who is just the opposite of the first person.
In vss. 36-42, we find a person who had made a lot of contribution to society. And this shows us that (slide) “God Cares for Someone with a Lot to Contribute to Society: Tabitha the Helper – vss. 36-42.”
Her name was Tabitha in Aramaic and Dorcas in Greek. I prefer to call her “Tabitha” since “Dorcas” sounds in English like “dork” and nobody wants to be a “dork” and she is definitely not a “dork.”
What she was was a helper. That was her spiritual gift. She saw that poor people and widows did not have enough clothing, so she made them robes and other clothing that they needed. She loved doing that. It made her feel good and it made others feel good.
She was a seamstress, she knew how to sew. And she used that spiritual gift from God to contribute to her society. As a result, she had lots of friends. Unlike the paralytic, Tabitha had many people who loved her.
That’s why when Tabitha got sick and then died, people missed her.
Some of them had heard that the apostle Peter was in the next town, so they sent people to ask Peter to come to where Tabitha was.
They had faith to believe that Peter could help to raise her from the dead. They had heard that Peter had healed a paralyzed man, and they made the jump that perhaps Peter could even made a dead person rise.
Now, this was an act of faith. So far, no apostle had ever raised someone from the dead. They had healed people of certain illnesses, but to expect that the apostle could raise the dead - that was a much greater act of faith.
But the believers there believed that.
So, they got Peter and he came with them.
Peter could see the widows crying for Tabitha. They showed him all the clothing she had made for them while she was alive.
So Peter got down on his knees and prayed, which must have also been a great act of faith for him, and said to the dead woman, “Tabitha, get up.”
And just like the paralyzed man, she immediately responded and got up. She first sat up, and then she stood up.
And Peter called everyone back into the room and presented Tabitha, now alive, to all of them.
Imagine the joy and celebration by everyone! Their dear friend, who had done so much for them, was now alive and back with them!
Oh, how we wish this was true for all those who make great contributions to society. We want them to be around forever. We want to have them around to continue to do good, to help others, to be an example for us and for the world.
And sometimes, God keeps those kinds of people around for a long time, in which case, we should be thankful. But other times, God takes them away from us after a while. Not all of them are raised to life, although for all those who trusted in Jesus Christ, will be raised to life one day.
What I want to point out is that people like this also impact others. When Tabitha was brought back to life by a miracle, vs. 42 says that “This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.”
Just like the first man, Tabitha, through God’s work in her, also led many people to faith in Jesus Christ.
The paralyzed man and Tabitha were so different, yet through God, both had the same result.
God cares for both those who have nothing to contribute and those with a lot to contribute and he can use both of them to have much impact on other people. We just never know. Don’t underestimate what God can do in you or someone else.
C. God Cares for Someone with an Undetermined Amount to Contribute to Society: Simon the Tanner – vs. 43
And then there is a third person in this passage.
His name is Simon. He was a tanner, which means he tanned furs and sold them.
Of the three persons in this passage, we know the least about him: only 12 words: “Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.”
What is a tanner? A tanner is someone who takes the hides or skins of animals and dyes them with different colors and then sells the animal hides. So, people can have black leather or red leather clothing to wear or boots to wear.
“In ancient history, tanning was considered a “smelly” trade and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor. Tanning by ancient methods is so foul smelling that tanneries are still isolated from those towns today where the old methods are used. The ancients used leather for waterskins, bags, harnesses, boats, armor, scabbards, boots and sandals.
Skins typically arrived at the tannery dried stiff and dirty with soil and gore. First, the ancient tanners would soak the skins in water to clean and soften them. Then they would pound and scour the skin to remove any remaining flesh and fat. Next, the tanner needed to remove the hair fibers from the skin. This was done by either soaking the skin in urine, painting it with an alkaline lime mixture, or simply letting the skin putrefy for several months then dipping it in a salt solution. After the hair fibers were loosened, the tanners scraped them off with a knife.
Once the hair was removed, the tanners would bate the material by pounding dung into the skin or soaking the skin in a solution of animal brains. Among the kinds of dung commonly used were that of dogs or pigeons. Sometimes the dung was mixed with water in a large vat, and the prepared skins were kneaded in the dung water until they became supple, but not too soft. The ancient tanner might use his bare feet to knead the skins in the dung water, and the kneading could last two or three hours. Depending on the type of dung used, the mixture might be rather acidic, causing irritation or minor burns during its prolonged contact with human skin.
It was this combination of animal feces mixed with decaying flesh that made ancient tanneries so smelly.
Children employed as dung gatherers were a common sight in ancient cities. Also common were ‘piss-pots’ located on street corners, where human urine could be collected for use in tanneries or by washerwomen.” And some of these exact same tanning methods are still used in third world countries to tan hides.
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanner_%28occupation%29).
Do you get what I am saying? Folks, this was not a pretty trade to be in.
So, we know that tanners make some contribution to society. But people did not really like them or be near them. So, their contribution to society was unclear, undetermined.
Yet, what we can say about Simon the tanner is that (slide), “God Cares for Someone with an Undetermined Amount to Contribute to Society.”
Maybe some people we know are like that. They have a job, but it’s not a great job. It pays ok, but that’s it. They might be a student who does decently in school work - some B’s, but mostly C’s. They are adequate in basketball or soccer, drawing or writing. Not great, but not bad. Somewhere in between. Nothing spectacular. Very ordinary. In other words, their potential is undetermined.
Yet, God cares for people like that too. God cared enough about Simon the tanner to have his name and profession recorded in the book of Acts as a lasting record. And God cared enough about Simon to have the leader of the church, the apostle Peter, stay with him. Wow, that must have raised Simon’s stature among his neighbors. Maybe that’s why God sent Peter to Simon’s house to show that God cares for Simon.
God can use people like Simon the tanner too.
Remember I said that there are only 12 words said about Simon? Well, actually that is not the whole truth.
If you go down to chapter 10, vs. 6, you also read some additional words about Simon.
There we read, “He [Peter] is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”
Six more words about Simon: “whose house is by the sea.”
What is the significance of those words?
The significance is that since his house was on the outskirts of town, by the sea, Peter could get into a boat and sail quickly up to other places.
And God had a reason for Peter to stay there.
In Acts 10, God spoke to Peter and told him to go to Caesarea, another coastal town, 30 miles north of Joppa (a slide of a map showing Joppa and Caesarea).
In other words, by staying at Simon’s house by the sea, God was also preparing Peter for his next assignment, which was to go to Caesarea, in order to share the gospel to a man named Cornelius and his family.
And God sent Peter later on to share the good news of Jesus Christ to Cornelius and his family, who were non-Jews. So, through Cornelius, many other Gentiles became Christians.
So, even though the apostle Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, but here, God is using Peter to also reach the Gentiles.
And it’s all planned out in God’s mind what he was going to do.
No one could have known this before.
Peter did not know what God was going to do. Simon the tanner did not know what God was going to do. Cornelius did not know what God was going to do. But in time, they all found out what God was doing.
And that is how we can apply this to ourselves.
We also don’t know how God is going to use us. We might feel we have nothing to contribute to society, we might feel we have a lot to contribute, or we might not know what we can contribute.
But don’t worry. God knows. And God will use each of us, with whatever we have, to make a contribution to society and to the kingdom of God.
Everyone has a place in the kingdom of God.
And sometimes, those who think they have nothing, like the paralytic, wind up bringing hundreds and thousands to know Christ.
And sometimes, those who don’t know what they can contribute are used as channels and agents to make a large impact.
So, don’t get discouraged if you don’t have a lot now. God will bring your potential out. He will bring out from you all the potential he has placed in you.
That is also living by faith. Living by faith is to live believing in what God can do even when you don’t see it yet.
So, start with faith. Believe that God will use you. Believe that God has a purpose for you. And then live with your life open to him, and watch how he will use you. Let us pray.
